What changes is Fraport making at Corfu Airport?
CORFU. As part of its mandate for taking over management and operations at the 14 airports, Fraport Greece has prepared a comprehensive plan for the modernization and development of the airports.
The company’s plan includes immediate projects and development works for upgrading the airports’ facilities.
Immediate works
Works which will be carried out immediately are damp proofing of the roof, repairs to any damage and painting of the building as well as repairs to the metal roof. Improvements will also be made to the toilets, storage space and the underground areas which are frequently flooded.
The aircraft parking area will be refurbished, the phone and internet network will be upgraded along with the generators and electrical systems.
According to Fraport’s Press Officer for Corfu, Yiannis Papazoglou, these works will not interfere in any way with passenger movement but the rate of work will increase or decrease according to the level of passenger traffic. In the summer, for example, the pace will decrease so as not to cause any problems for arrivals and departures.
Amount of investment
Fraport Greece will invest a minimum of 400 million euros for development works until 2021. During the 40-year concession period the company will implement additional maintenance and upgrading works resulting in possible total investments of some 1 billion euros.
According to Fraport, the planned infrastructure improvements at Corfu airport are:
Increase in landing and parking charges
The new landing and aircraft parking charges for Corfu airport, which will come into force from April, have already been announced and can be found in the Fraport website.
Prior to 10th April 2017 the landing charge for small single-engine private aircraft was about 2 Euros. From 11th April 2017, when Fraport took over, it increased to 50 Euros and from 1st April 2018 it will increase to 100 Euros.
The President of Corfu Civil Aviation Authority Association, Dimitris Roussos, claims that this increase “is exorbitant and almost prohibitive. A lot of people will choose other airports such as Ioannina which have lower charges and where they can refuel and spend 1-2 days instead of coming to ‘expensive’ Corfu. It is quite probable that we will see the Corfu Air Club move to Ioannina as well as a significant decrease in the number of small private aircraft visiting Corfu in the summer.”
